September 19, 2026•16 min read•from Latest from Who What Wear

From Kendall to Kaia: The Buzzy Sunglasses Brand Stylish Celebrities Are Wearing Right Now

Our take

The fashion elite have spoken: Side Eye is the eyewear label commanding attention. From Kendall Jenner to Kaia Gerber, celebrities are embracing this buzzy brand’s distinctive designs. Side Eye delivers a curated collection of sunglasses that seamlessly blend modern aesthetics with timeless appeal. Discover elevated eyewear that elevates your entire look. For those seeking a deeper dive into current trends, explore our recent piece, "Sienna Miller's Already Wearing Autumn’s Coolest Coat Trend," and refine your style with confidence.

The eyewear landscape is in constant flux, a reflection of the broader fashion industry’s relentless pursuit of the new. Lately, a name has been gaining considerable traction, not just amongst industry insiders, but also within the celebrity sphere: Side Eye. The rapid ascent of this luxury eyewear brand, barely a year old, speaks volumes about the current appetite for understated cool and carefully curated aesthetics. It’s a phenomenon we’ve observed firsthand, initially through a launch event and subsequently through its increasingly visible presence on influential figures. This echoes a broader shift we've noted, away from maximalist trends and toward a more refined, considered approach to style, as exemplified by the resurgence of classic silhouettes – a sentiment explored in our recent piece on Sienna Miller's Already Wearing Autumn’s Coolest Coat Trend. The rise of Side Eye isn't simply about a new brand; it’s indicative of a larger cultural preference.

What distinguishes Side Eye from the crowded eyewear market isn’t necessarily groundbreaking design—though their shapes are undeniably appealing—but rather a strategic positioning and a keen understanding of the modern muse. They've tapped into a desire for accessories that feel both effortless and intentional, a sensibility that aligns with the current mood in fashion. The brand’s association with celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber isn't accidental; it’s a deliberate cultivation of aspirational imagery, reinforcing the idea that these sunglasses are the accessory of choice for those who embody understated elegance. This approach resonates with a consumer base increasingly discerning about their purchases, prioritizing quality and timelessness over fleeting trends. Consider, for instance, the ongoing conversation around footwear, where the demand for elevated trainers—rather than purely athletic styles—is shaping the market, as detailed in Loafers Just Aren't Cutting It for Me—These New Trainer Releases Are Already Streets Ahead for 2026. Side Eye occupies a similar space within accessories, offering a sense of elevated practicality.

The speed of Side Eye’s growth also highlights the power of social media and influencer marketing in today’s fashion ecosystem. A well-timed PR push, combined with organic adoption by influential figures, can propel a brand to prominence remarkably quickly. This contrasts with the traditional, slower burn of luxury brands, which historically relied on established retail partnerships and editorial placements. While those avenues remain important, the direct connection to consumers afforded by platforms like Instagram has fundamentally altered the game. Furthermore, the brand’s association with curated experiences, such as the launch event mentioned in the article, reinforces its identity as a purveyor of a lifestyle, not just a product. This echoes the broader trend of brands crafting immersive narratives around their offerings, as evidenced by our recent coverage of 72 Hours in New York During Fashion Week, where the focus extended beyond the runway to encompass the entire experience of attending fashion week.

Ultimately, the success of Side Eye signals a shift in consumer expectations regarding luxury eyewear. It’s no longer enough to simply offer high-quality materials and craftsmanship; brands must cultivate a distinct identity, resonate with the aspirations of their target audience, and leverage the power of digital platforms to build a community. The question now is whether Side Eye can sustain this momentum and evolve beyond its initial celebrity-driven appeal, solidifying its position as a truly enduring player in the luxury eyewear space. Will their focus on understated cool prove resilient against the inevitable tide of new trends, or will they become another fleeting phenomenon?

As fashion editors, it's our job to notice when something starts popping up, and that's what happened with the luxury eyewear brand Side Eye. I first heard about it through a PR contact, who invited me to the launch event this past May for a look at their first collection. Since then, in less than a year from its start, I've watched them rapidly grow.

First, my colleague, associate features editor Ana Escalante, sent me a link to their sporty 223 Butler St sunglasses at the end of May saying: "Your vibe." Little did I know how much I'd continue to see them from that point on. Next, I saw Senior Fashion Editor Anna LaPlaca wearing the exact same ones at the office. As I followed Side Eye on Instagram over the past few months, I quickly realized their growing popularity, particularly among celebrities, with posts of Laura Harrier and Vittoria Ceretti. Then, this month, Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber were each spotted in the Butler pair, and this past Wednesday, Bella Hadid wore another style called 1225 Madison Ave, adding to their growing list of fans.

Vittoria Ceretti wearing Side Eye sunglasses. — **On Vittoria Ceretti:** Side Eye 223 Butler St Sunglasses ($290) (Image credit: Splash by Shutterstock)

Kendall Jenner wearing Side Eye sunglasses. — **On Kendall Jenner:** Side Eye 233 Butler St Sunglasses ($290) (Image credit: Backgrid)

Kaia Geber wearing Side Eye sunglasses. — **On Kaia Gerber:** Side Eye 233 Butler St Sunglasses ($290) (Image credit: Getty Images)

Bella Hadid wearing Side Eye sunglasses. — **On Bella Hadid:** Side Eye 1225 Madison Ave Sunglasses ($290) (Image credit: Backgrid)

The co-founders behind the label, Leila Merz and Athina Rickmers, met while studying at Columbia Business School, where they identified a gap in the market: where was the in-between of low-quality, mass-market options and overpriced, logo-driven luxury brands? It was that question that made them decide to create their own line based on timeless design, craftsmanship, and fair pricing.

Below, see my conversation with Merz and Rickmers, and shop the sunglasses.

Side Eye founders. — **On Merz and Rickmers:** Side Eye 141 Waverly Pl Sunglasses ($330) (Image credit: Side Eye)

What were each of your backgrounds and trajectories leading up to Side Eye, and how did you get interested in sunglasses?

Leila Merz: Athina and I met on the subway, on the first day of orientation day at Columbia Business School. I had worked in tech at Amazon and T-Mobile before and always felt drawn to the world of fashion. We became friends immediately and quickly realized that we both had a great passion for sunglasses. They're a relatively small investment, yet have such an impact to completely change your look, your mood, and sense of confidence. You put on a pair and immediately feel like a different version of yourself.

Athina Rickmers: My background is strategy consulting. I had worked out of Stockholm before across different Industries and learned how to use creativity to reinvent business models and products. I'd always wanted to build something of my own, and I've always been visually driven, drawn to fashion and branding. Sunglasses felt like the perfect product because they're both—deeply personal and incredibly expressive. Often the very first thing people notice about someone. Yet it felt like there was still a real space in-between inexpensive, trend-led, mass-market eyewear (often made in China) and traditional luxury brands with huge markups driven largely by the licensed logo. Leila and I saw an opportunity to create something more personally and beautifully made, distinctive, and luxurious, without the conventional luxury markup.

I’d love to hear more about starting Side Eye.

LM: We came from different professional backgrounds, but connected immediately over a shared love of fashion, a similar sense of humor, similar ambitions, and a common perspective on style and branding. We kept coming back to the same question: why do so many beautifully designed products either come at inaccessible prices with big logos, or compromise on quality? The idea for Side Eye grew naturally out of our friendship. We kept returning to the idea of building something that reflected how we wanted to live and work—seriously ambitious, but never taking ourselves too seriously.

AR: The name captured that mindset perfectly. Side Eye is about doing your own thing, pursuing what you believe in, and giving negativity and outside noise a side eye rather than your energy. It was a phrase and an attitude between us long before it became a brand. Once we started looking closely at eyewear, we realized there was a genuine gap in the market. We wanted the quality, craftsmanship, and feeling of a luxury frame, but with more transparency and a more honest price. As we mentioned, sunglasses have the power to transform your look—so you don't just want to own one pair, you want several—but that shouldn't mean compromising on quality. From there, we started speaking with designers and travelled to Italy to speak to independent Italian manufacturers, learning every part of the process, and slowly turning the idea into a real brand.

What are some of your references and inspirations for the brand and designs? Could you give an in-depth overview of your process?

LM: Our references come from a lot of places such as archival fashion imagery, cinema, vintage photography, and of course the people and places we see around New York. We're drawn to men and women who have a very individual sense of style, people who might pair something polished with something unexpected, and never look overly styled. We're not interested in designing around a single micro-trend. We look for shapes that feel familiar but have something slightly unusual about them, whether that's the proportion, the thickness of the acetate, the angle of the lens, or a subtle detail in the silhouette.

AR: New York is always our starting point. The city is full of contrasts—polished and raw, nostalgic and forward-looking, understated and theatrical—and we try to capture some of that tension in every design. Our process is very collaborative. It often begins with a feeling or a person rather than a technical sketch—how we want someone to feel when they put on the frame, and where we imagine them wearing it. From there, we gather references and work closely with our designer to translate that mood into a silhouette. We refine every element through multiple rounds of drawings, prototypes, and fittings, and pay particular attention to proportion, because a difference of just a few millimeters can completely change how a frame sits on the face. Then we work with independent Italian artisans on the acetate, lenses, construction, and finishing. Quality is one of the most crucial values to us, central to the whole process: the frames are handmade in Italy, and we use Zeiss lenses. The aim is to create pieces that feel distinctive immediately, but remain relevant long after a particular season.

Each of the frames is named after a New York address, referencing your favorite places and creating a sort of map around the city. Can you share the significance behind each one?

LM: The addresses turn the collection into a personal map of New York. Each one is tied to a memory—a friendship between Athina and me, a formative period, a nostalgic moment, or simply a feeling we associate with a particular part of the city. Most of the time, they're not the obvious, hyped spots—more our own side-eye tips. We loved the idea that each frame could carry a small piece of our New York story, rather than just being given an arbitrary product name.

AR: Each address has its own character, reflected in the frame: 141 Waverly Place is the coffee shop where we first had the idea to actually build Side Eye, on the iconic bench outside, where we'd spend hours planning out our work together. It was our first design, and part of our limited-edition collection: bold, glamorous, and slightly nostalgic, so the address felt like a natural match. 52 Grove Street is tied to our Friday-night aperitivo before heading out. It captures the intimate, timeless feeling of the West Village, and became the name for a frame that feels classic but still very current. 223 Butler Street represents our nights out in Brooklyn, the only commute either of us thinks is worth making. The frame is confident, strong, and a little more directional, reflecting the energy we associate with that part of Brooklyn. 1225 Madison Avenue is tied to our Sunday ritual, commuting all the way uptown for our favorite frozen yogurt, rain or shine, regardless of the season. It's something we looked forward to every week. The frame has a polished, elegant quality that reflects that more refined, uptown side of New York. As the collection grows, the map will keep expanding, with places that mean something to us and to the wider Side Eye community, and a way to keep sharing our tips with them.

If you had to describe the style of each pair, or the person who might wear each one, what would you say?

LM: We never want to prescribe exactly who should wear a frame. What we love is seeing the same pair interpreted completely differently by different people. That said, each style does have its own personality.

AR: 141 Waverly Place is bold, glamorous, and unapologetic. It has a cinematic quality, for someone who enjoys making an entrance. 52 Grove is timeless, effortless, and quietly confident. An everyday frame for someone whose style feels natural rather than overly considered. 223 Butler Street is black tie or a night out, either works. Strong, modern, and slightly edgy, for someone with an individual point of view who isn't afraid of a more directional silhouette. 1225 Madison Avenue is polished, elegant, refined and maybe a little dramatic. Uptown in feeling, but with enough character to keep it from tipping into traditional.

I'd love to hear more about the designer you work with. I think you mentioned that they had previously been at Tom Ford?

LM: We work closely with Marco Benetti, who was actually the very first designer of Tom Ford Eyewear. That experience gave him an exceptional understanding of proportion, construction, and the small details that make a frame feel truly luxurious.

AR: What makes the relationship work so well is that it's genuinely collaborative. Leila and I bring the concept, the frame shape, the lens tint, the brand world, the customer perspective, the references, the emotional direction and Marco brings deep technical knowledge of eyewear design. Our ideas aren't simply handed over to be executed. We go back and forth on every detail, from the initial silhouette and lens shape to the thickness of the acetate and how the frame sits on the face. Combined with the expertise of our independent Italian manufacturers, that collaboration lets us create something with the quality and precision of traditional luxury eyewear, while still feeling unmistakably Side Eye.

What is the best piece of advice you received, or the most important thing you learned, at Columbia Business School?

LM: One of the most valuable lessons was that you rarely feel completely ready before starting something important. At a certain point, you have to move past analysis, trust your judgment, and learn by doing. Building Side Eye alongside the MBA made that lesson very real.

AR: For me, it was learning that the people you build with matter just as much as the idea itself. Columbia gave us frameworks for strategy and finance, but its greatest impact was bringing Leila and me together. It also taught me to get more comfortable asking for help, whether from the community of students and faculty around us, or from industry leaders in New York's fashion world. So much of building a company depends on relationships, generosity, and being willing to admit what you don't yet know.

Which pair of your sunglasses would you say is the most "you"?

LM: For both of us, we wear every frame in rotation—but we each go through phases with our favorites. For me, it's 223 Butler. I love it because I can wear it running or with a black-tie dress—it's that versatile. It's the pair I put on without thinking, and it still gives every outfit a point of view.

AR: I'd choose 1225 Madison Avenue, because it's so classy but still cool. I tend to gravitate toward frames that feel timeless at first glance but have something a little unexpected about them. That balance feels very me, and very Side Eye.

You've had quite a few celebrity fans so early on, from Kaia Gerber to Kendall Jenner. How has it felt seeing your pieces on them, and how did that come about?

LM: It's been surreal. We're still such a young brand, so seeing someone we admire choose to wear one of our designs is incredibly validating. The most exciting part is that the frames don't disappear on the person wearing them—they become part of that person's own style.

AR: A lot of those moments have come through a combination of relationships, stylist pulls, and organic discovery. We love working with stylists, because their feedback and direction mean a great deal to us. Seeing people like Kaia Gerber and Kendall Jenner wearing Side Eye has been a genuine "is this really happening?" moment. But beyond the visibility, it's meaningful because these are women with access to virtually every eyewear brand in the world, knowing they chose ours gives us enormous motivation. It's also introduced Side Eye to people who might never have discovered us otherwise, which can make a real difference for an independent brand at our stage.

Is there anything you can share about what's coming up next for the brand?

LM: We're focused on growing thoughtfully. That means expanding the collection without losing the clarity of the brand, continuing to work with exceptional Italian manufacturers, and developing new silhouettes that add something genuinely different to the current range. We’re also building Side Eye's physical presence through carefully selected retail partners, pop-ups, and experiences in New York, Europe, and other key markets. Community will remain a major focus for us, we want people to experience Side Eye as more than an eyewear label, and we believe that's something missing from the landscape right now. Bringing the community together is a big part of that too. There are new addresses, new colorways, and collaborations in development, but we want every release to feel intentional. The long-term vision is to build a global eyewear brand rooted in New York: beautifully made, culturally relevant, and confident without ever taking itself too seriously and never losing its focus on quality.